ONIONBAGBLOG PICS

Up the Swanny
Monday 7 January, 2008


Sunny Stockwell is famous on two fronts: That tube station incident, and The Swan pub. As far as claims for fame go, it's not something knobber estate agents shout about.

The Swan (directly opposite the tube station) has just has just completed a total refit. It was never the most appealing of buildings (or venues,) but the cleaning up of the brickwork has at least made the exterior look fresh. I've yet to venture inside, and if truth be known, you're more likely to see me at Tiger Tiger than my local meat market. I'm told that the period piece um, fag-stained 70's interior is no more.

Historically and The Swan holds great significance for Stockwell. It was at the centre of the great tea smuggling trade in the early 18th Century (I�m not making this up,) and the outlawed trade route from the South Coast towards central London saw Stockwell at the stopping off point before advancing towards the City.

The tea tradition continues (at onionbagblog HQ II where I slurp what surly must be illegal amounts each day.) The old Swan also still offered a tea room pre-facelift, but there wasn't a great deal of passing trade.

I very much doubt that the Irish / Aussie Friday night Fuck Buddy crowd will see my presence in 2008. I've been to The Swan only twice in ten years; once to find out what all the fuss was about, and then a return the following Friday just to confirm how crap the whole experience was. The Bryan Adams tribute band did me in. It's not as if the original is any cop, let alone a copycat. I've not been back since.

Time to put the kettle on.